Educational Videos Resources and How to Use them in your Homeschool

I’m going to say it. I love using educational videos resources to help supplement our homeschool lessons. I know some people frown upon putting your kids in front of the television or a screen and let them sit there passively. But, I love using videos for a number of reasons.

Using Videos to Introduce a new Area of Study

I have found introducing a new area of study with a short book or video has been a great way to capture my guys’ interest in a topic and give them a general idea and overview of what we are about to start studying.

It also gives me and them a break in our normal routine and we all look forward to it.

I have an auditory and a visual learner, so videos catered to both their learning styles! I also have two “abstract” thinkers as opposed to “concrete” where they enjoy looking at the “big picture” or a concept before they delve into a topic and its details. So a general video about a topic is right up their learning style alley!

Great Sick Day Activity

How many of you really take sick days if your child feels like they are coming down with a cold and you know they are not up to the regular homeschool routine? Or, do you call the whole day off when you don’t feel that good, but you could really use a break for at least one day?

A running joke among homeschoolers is the lack of “sick” or “snow” days because we’d rather save our days off for vacation or doing really fun stuff!

So, enter the video!

An educational video was our “go to” lesson plan for when mom wasn’t prepared to be sick and that day was filled with mom assisted stuff. Or, if you knew that math or english lesson planned for the day was not going to go over too well because “Jonny” really wasn’t his bright and shiny self with a sore throat, it was time to pop in a video.

And, since we were going to be studying a new topic in science or history soon, why not use the day to introduce it with a video while they lie on the couch? And you know if “Jonny” is watching the video, then everyone else isn’t going to pay attention to you talking about fractions. And it would benefit everyone to glean some information from the history or science lesson….

And if it gave me a chance to catch up on some things and a little quiet time, I call that a HUGE win!

Use Videos to Demonstrate the Details

Videos don’t have to just be used to introduce a topic or be a general overview. If your child is struggling with reading or listening to details about a math, english, science or history topic, a video with pictures, diagrams, and examples along with an explanation voiced in another by another source may just be the switch to new found understanding!

Plus, it can supplement any curriculum you are using. They don’t have to be long and tedious either. You can even just show a clip of what you want to watch.

Videos are a Great Way to End a Study for Review

Videos serve also as a great summary and review of what you just learned about a science topic or a historical time period. It helps wrap up all the information you just learned and puts it into perspective for your learners and helps them become ready to move onto the next topic.

Rabbit Trails Anyone?

And, if you have “random” learners who enjoy going off the learning trail when they come across a related topic during your studies that catches their interest, you can watch a video about the related concept without spending too much time on it. If your learner shows even more interest, you can then decide what you want to do to study that trail.

There are a large number of free resources for educational videos across all age levels and subject areas. Here are some for you to check out:

Teacher Tube – (this one is edu-basics series with multiplication)

https://www.teachertube.com/user/channel/Edu-Basics

Teacher Tube videos (go to right hand side of screen and click on Expand 60 More Topics)

https://www.teachertube.com/videos/

Biology videos with lesson plans and other resources

http://www.bioedonline.org/videos/

Destinos Introductory Spanish series high school lessons – https://www.learner.org/series/destinos-an-introduction-to-spanish/

Rockalingua beginner younger grades Spanish – some are free

https://rockalingua.com/videos

large variety of children’s educational videos – science emphasis but other subjects too – excellent

https://www.neok12.com/

National Geographic videos https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/videos

PBS Kids videos https://unctv.pbslearningmedia.org/

I have some educational videos at my YouTube channel where I have a two short lessons on nouns for elementary schoolers. I also have a two part video on figurative language and literary devices using a Christmas theme for middle and upper grade levels.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCESPvazdOHSyxvsJ0SH_wHQ

If you like to use audios in your homeschool, check out this post with free resources for audios and audio books.

Please share this page with others so they can enjoy the benefits of using videos too!